Nina would have laughed if the situation weren’t so serious. How would they get actionable information out of Anna? She had been trained at the academy not to indulge people’s delusions, which was the course Wade and Kent had taken. She decided on a slightly different approach.
Adopting an expression of utmost sincerity, she faced Anna. “There might be something in your DNA that is very helpful to us. In order to get that information, we need to know about your origins. All of the files we have are gone.”
“Well, why the hell didn’t you just say so?” Anna said. “My parents—not biological, obviously—went to the Borr Clinic when they found out they couldn’t have children. They didn’t want to adopt, and they had heard about Dr. Borr’s lab through friends in DC.” She glanced up at the ceiling, trying to recollect. “I don’t remember their names, but I’m pretty sure they worked for the government.”
Surprised she had gotten Anna to talk, Nina kept to the relevant details. “Who is Dr. Borr?”
“You know, the famous geneticist. He pioneered genetically engineered offspring. Told my parents I would be special.” She dropped her voice to a conspiratorial whisper. “But of course he didn’t tell them the baby would be half extraterrestrial.” Her eyes flitted to Kent.
“Do you know where his clinic is?” Nina asked, trying to keep her on track.
“About an hour from here, right next to—” She jabbed a finger at Breck. “Hey, what the hell are you doing?”
Breck hastily tucked her cell phone away. “Nothing.”
“You were taking pictures of me. I saw you.”
“I just wanted to, you know, get some photos of your head and facial features.”
Nina inwardly groaned. Breck should never, under any circumstances, work undercover. She had to be the worst liar ever.
Anna shot to her feet, pointing at the front door, stiff armed. “Get out. All of you.”
Despite their repeated assurances that there was nothing to fear, Anna remained adamant. In her mind, they had crossed the line by taking secret measurements of her body without her permission. She told them she’d been abducted too many times, suffered from PTSD because of it, and would no longer tolerate any probes, examinations, or hours of lost time.
A barrage of accusations peppered with obscenities followed them as they clambered into the sleek black van and instructed the driver to head back to Quantico. Nina looked out the darkly tinted side window to see Anna standing on her front porch, both middle fingers in the air.
The van maneuvered onto the main road as she glanced at Kent, who had taken the bench seat opposite her. “I didn’t know you had relatives in the Pleiades.”
Wade chuckled. “It certainly explains a few things.”
“I’ll have to report this to the home world,” Kent said, deadpan. “And I’m afraid I’ll also have to wipe your memories.”
“I don’t know about alien-hybrid babies,” Breck said, typing on her cell phone. “But Dr. Borr ran a fertility clinic in Bethesda.”
“I guess we know where we’re going next,” Wade said. “That’s exactly what Fanning was talking about. We should be able to get a search warrant for medical records if they don’t grant us access.”
Breck frowned down at her screen. “Except that the clinic burned to the ground about thirty years ago.”
“What happened?” Nina asked.
“According to this news article, the clinic was founded by Dr. Wayland Borr, who advertised his services to couples who wanted to raise superior offspring.” Breck made air quotes around the last two words. “He called it the Borr Project.”
A chill crept down Nina’s spine. “Superior offspring?”
Breck pursed her lips. “He collected eggs and sperm exclusively from Caucasian donors screened for optimal genetic health and a genius-level IQ.”
“Unbelievable,” Kent said.
“Local media did a report about the clinic.” Breck continued reading as the van maneuvered onto the freeway. “Described the Borr Project as a modern-day eugenics experiment. The day after the story went out, someone torched the whole building.”
“Did the clinic reopen?” Nina asked.
“According to this news report, Dr. Borr committed suicide a short time later. The clinic never reopened.”
“We need access to his files, any records he kept,” Wade said.
“Hold on a sec.” Breck swiped her finger down the screen. “The obituary mentions a surviving son. He would probably be in his forties by now. If he inherited the family estate, he would be within an hour’s drive in Potomac, Maryland. It’s on our way back to Virginia. We could stop by and talk to him, see if he has any of his father’s paperwork.”
“I’ll call Buxton,” Wade said to her. “Tell the driver to head toward Potomac.”
Chapter 35
As Nina sat on the bench seat next to Wade, the driver pulled the van onto a circular cobblestone driveway. Breck snapped her laptop shut and Kent unbuckled his safety belt as they trundled to a stop. A dark-haired man in a black golf shirt and tactical pants stood on the front steps of a sprawling mansion, apparently ready to greet them.
“Looks like Mr. Borr doesn’t get too many visitors,” Wade said. “And doesn’t want them.”
They’d been granted access at the front gate via the intercom, denying them the opportunity of an unannounced visit but confirming that Gavin Borr was at home.
Too young to be Dr. Borr’s forty-five-year-old son, the knuckle dragger standing at parade rest under the portico had to be private security.
“Why does Borr think he needs a commando to guard his estate?” Nina asked. “This is Potomac. What does he think is going to happen to him in one of the wealthiest suburbs in the metro area?”
Kent looked through the window, narrowing his eyes at the man. “He’s no commando, he’s a poser.”
She figured Kent’s background in Special Forces gave him the ability to spot the real thing.
“Still,” she said, opening her door, “Gavin Borr must feel threatened.”
They got out and allowed the hired muscle to inspect their creds before following him inside, leaving the driver to wait for them in the van as they had before. After ushering Nina and her team into what she assumed was the study, he closed the heavy wooden double doors behind him.
A slight, pale man with receding platinum hair greeted them. “Please have a seat. Would you like a drink?”
They declined, glancing around the well-appointed room. Nina peered at the tall wooden shelves lined with books. Even to her untrained eye, some looked very old and very expensive. A globe the size of a beach ball rested in a wooden frame in the far corner. Did people still have globes? With constant wars all over the world, it seemed to her they would be obsolete before they were even finished, much less years later sitting in someone’s private library.
Borr’s scratchy voice pulled her out of her reverie. “To what do I owe the pleasure of a visit from the FBI?”
Seated in an overstuffed armchair, he did not rise to greet them. His words were casual, but his repeated lip licking and the twisting of his hands in his lap betrayed anxiety. The appearance of four federal agents at his door would tend to have that effect, but Nina got the impression the man was nervous most of the time. His unnaturally pallid features, red-rimmed eyes, and slightly hunched shoulders gave him the general demeanor of a laboratory rat cringing in the corner of a cage as the scientist approached.
“We’re here to talk about your father, Dr. Wayland Borr, and his work,” Nina began. “Can you tell us about his clinic?”
Borr’s thin lips turned down. “That damnable clinic.” He motioned for them to take a seat on the plush sofa and chairs surrounding the ornate coffee table in the center of the room. “It’s like I can never get away from it.”
The reaction was unexpected. And intriguing. Based on what Breck had uncovered on the drive over, Nina took a gamble. “Is that why you have private security?”
; His small eyes sharpened as he watched them sit. “Some people still call us Nazis. It’s outrageous. We’re not even of German descent.” He lifted his chin. “My ancestors are from Holland. The name Borr is also prevalent in Norse mythology. Borr is the father of the one-eyed god Odin, who is Thor’s father.”
She had to get him back on track or this interview would devolve as badly as Anna Grable’s had. “Mr. Borr, can you explain why your father’s clinic made you concerned for your safety?”
“It all started because my father wanted to help infertile couples. Only he figured that, instead of taking random donors, he would screen for healthy men and women of superior intelligence.” Borr shrugged. “What’s the harm in that?”
The question took Nina back to her days in foster care, watching prospective parents pass her by to fawn over the other little girls. “Apparently, some people took offense to the fact that the donors were exclusively Caucasian.”
“You sound like that reporter,” Borr said. “The one who wrote that story and started the whole scandal. Some troglodyte burned down the clinic right after the story ran, then our whole family started getting death threats. I was in high school when it happened. My father couldn’t take it, so he . . .” His eyes hardened. “After all these years, we’re still harassed. I’ll never forgive that damned reporter. He twisted everything my father tried to do. Painted him as some sort of racist zealot. My father was a visionary. A man of science. He was trying to advance humankind by selecting for genetically advantaged progeny.”
She felt her jaw slacken. Borr, a product of his upbringing, believed he was making perfect sense. Reluctant to alienate him this early in the interview process, she swallowed the retort trying to force its way out of her mouth and redirected her line of questioning. “Were any records saved after the clinic burned down?”
“You’re not the first to ask about that. Grown children of some of his clients have contacted me over the years looking for information about their biological parents.” Borr waved a dismissive hand. “I remind them that this was more than thirty years ago, before there was a digital cloud. My father kept his paper records in file boxes. He backed them up on five-inch floppy disks. Unfortunately, he stored those files and disks on-site.” He slumped in his chair. “Thanks to those arsonists, there’s nothing left of his records.”
Her mind rebelled at the thought of another dead end after having come so far. “Don’t you have anything at all? Any stray notebooks he might have taken home?”
“Nothing.”
“What about a business partner or an investor in his clinic?”
“My father was an unusual scientist in that he had independent means. When no one wanted to partner with him, he simply founded the clinic on his own.”
“Did he have employees? An attorney? An accountant?”
“Yes to all three, but they have no information whatsoever about the identities of my father’s clients. Believe me, I’ve tried. It seems my father went to a great deal of trouble to ensure the anonymity of donors and prospective parents. Things were different back then. There was a lot more latitude for such arrangements to be kept confidential.”
Nina tried to wrap her mind around the enormity of the problem. “How long was the clinic operating? Do you at least know how many babies were born?”
“The clinic was open for about three years. I’m not sure how many successful pregnancies there were, but from the comments he occasionally made around the dinner table, I figure somewhere between fifty and a hundred. The couples who raised the children had no biological link to their babies,” Borr went on. “The embryos were created from donor sperm and eggs, then implanted into the mother, or in some cases, a surrogate.”
“Is there anything else you can tell us that might help?”
“I believe I’ve been most helpful, especially since you haven’t told me what this is all about. It’s my turn to ask questions now.”
She braced herself for the inevitable.
Borr’s pale eyes grew calculating. “I’ve seen the four of you on the news. You’re investigating that serial killer, the Cipher.” He paused as if waiting for a reaction. Getting none, he continued, “I am not a stupid man, Agent Guerrera. Given who you are pursuing, and given your urgent and unannounced visit to my home to ask about my father’s records, I can only conclude that you have developed a suspect. Someone who was conceived as part of the Borr Project.”
Wade cut in before Nina could respond. “We can neither confirm nor deny that, Mr. Borr.”
Borr let out a wheezy chuckle. “Which I will take as absolute confirmation.” The smile died on his lips. “I have only one request. Keep the clinic out of it. If word spreads that my father’s experiments had anything to do with this, our whole family will become pariahs again.”
“We don’t share our investigative leads with anyone,” Wade assured him.
“Sooner or later, the truth will out, as the saying goes. It always does.” Borr pointed a bony finger at them. “I want you to understand something. This will be a hardship for everyone who was born as a result of the clinic. If one of them turns out to be a psychotic murderer, the rest will fall under suspicion. Their lives will be disrupted. They will be accused of being the products of a eugenics experiment conducted by a mad scientist. Those are the kinds of things I’ve been forced to hear all my life.”
Something about the way he spoke perked up Nina’s antennae. “Why you?”
He flinched. “I didn’t mean to say that.” He said it a little too quickly.
“Were you one of the children conceived in the clinic?”
Borr stared at them with such venom, she thought he might order them out of the house as Anna Grable had. She held her position, waiting him out. Finally, he seemed to deflate. “My mother was barren. It was one of the reasons my father began to study fertility.”
This kept getting more interesting. “So Dr. Borr is not your biological father?”
Borr shook his head adamantly. “He used his own sperm, but he found an egg donor who was a NASA scientist. She had no interest in becoming a mother but was willing to contribute her eggs.” He swallowed. “I was the first prototype. My father successfully implanted the embryo in my mother. Unfortunately, she died shortly after giving birth to me.”
“I’m sorry.”
He waved off the sentiment. “The point is that a few people found out about how I was born, and some have been extremely unkind. My father always expected great things of me. He thought I would become the president, cure cancer, or design cities. Instead, he got a son with an above-average IQ, but who was unremarkable in many ways and suffered from poor health. I believe I was a disappointment to him.”
She felt a tingle run through her body. Her senses went on high alert, signaling that she was onto something. “Did he mistreat you?”
She recalled Wade’s earlier profile, in which he surmised the Cipher had been abused by a father figure. She knew Borr wasn’t her suspect, but she wondered if they had more in common than the way they had come into the world.
“He mostly failed to notice me,” Borr said. “I’m only telling you this because I have a kind of kinship with the other people who came from the clinic. They are all adults now and should be allowed to lead normal lives, free of expectations of greatness or, if the Cipher turns out to be one of them, suspicions of evil or mental illness.”
“I agree with you, Mr. Borr. Biology is not destiny,” Wade said. “Perhaps that’s something your father should have considered when screening potential donors.”
Borr stiffened. “I believe it’s time for you all to leave.” His words were coated in ice. “You have trespassed on my hospitality long enough.”
“We appreciate your—”
“Gregory will show you out. Don’t come back unless you have a search warrant in hand.”
They followed Gregory through the house to the front door. Ramrod straight in his black tactical garb, he wordlessly ushered them to the wait
ing van.
As they all got in the back and buckled up, Nina reflected that they had left both residences on a sour note, and empty handed to boot. Not a good day for the FBI.
The driver eased the van through the elaborate front gates and back into traffic.
“That didn’t end well,” Nina said to no one in particular.
“We got everything we could,” Wade said. “I watched him closely. He wasn’t holding out on us.”
“I watched him too,” Kent said. “And I’m convinced he’s totally on board with his father’s prejudice. He can lie to himself all he wants, but that’s exactly what it is when you only select candidates from your own race for the program.” He let out a disgusted snort. “Genetically advantaged progeny, my ass.”
Nina slid Kent a covert smile. He was exactly the type Dr. Borr would have chosen, yet he would have had nothing to do with the man or his so-called project.
Kent grinned back, acknowledging their shared sentiment. She noticed Wade watching the unspoken communication with an expression of frank appraisal.
“I sent Buxton a text,” Breck said, oblivious to the byplay. “He’s calling us now.”
She held her phone out so everyone could hear.
“Can you speak freely?” Buxton asked.
“We’re secure,” Wade said. “Go ahead.”
“Give me what you’ve got.” As usual, Buxton wasted no time on niceties.
Wade, as lead agent on their team, provided an overview of what they had learned from Dr. Borr’s son. Buxton was infuriated to hear the clinic’s records were destroyed in the fire, rendering their only promising lead to identifying the Cipher useless.
This time, he had slipped through the dragnet without even trying.
“Have any of the other people on Fanning’s list been interviewed?” Breck wanted to know. “What were they like?”
The sound of shuffling paper preceded Buxton’s answer. “Local field agents contacted all of them in person. Some knew about the Borr Project and some did not. The parents who raised them apparently made their own decisions about how much to tell them.”
The Cipher Page 21
